BELLEMONT — How much can you get for stealing walkers and crutches from a handicapped woman?

In the case of an Alamance County man, the answer is $3.96.

That’s what Kory Shane Lashley, 24, of Thom Road, Mebane, got Jan. 16 when he sold two aluminum walkers and a pair of aluminum crutches to OK Recycling on East Webb Avenue in Burlington. Lashley is accused of selling the items for scrap metal after stealing them earlier in the day from a wheelchair-bound woman.

“If the boy had knocked on my door and asked, I’d have given him what I’ve got,” Tonie Hicks said. “If he needed $5, all he had to do was ask. But don’t steal from me.”

The incident started shortly before noon. Hicks and her daughter Leslie Brown and Hicks’ two grandsons have recently moved into a house on N.C. 49 in the community of Bellemont. Brown had emergency surgery last week and was home from work recuperating.

Hicks, 62, needs a hip replacement, but because she’s suffered three heart attacks, doctors don’t think she’d survive the surgery. She’s on disability and has been confined to a wheelchair for six years – only using the walkers and crutches on occasion.

“My heart won’t let them fix my hips,” is how Hicks described her condition.

She was in another part of the house when she heard her daughter yell that a man was stealing from a backyard garage.

Only a few days removed from surgery, Brown rushed out to confront the thief. She yelled at him, but Hicks said Lashley had already placed the items in his car’s trunk. He hopped behind the wheel and gunned the motor, then circled the next-door house to avoid Brown. Hicks noted his vehicle left tracks in the rain-soaked yard.

Hicks called 911 and Deputy J.R. Holmes of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office responded. Hicks explained what happened.

Holmes listened, then said, “I believe I know where it went.”

Hicks said it wasn’t long before Holmes returned with the missing walkers and crutches. She said Holmes told her he drove to OK Recycling and asked workers if they’d purchased any crutches and walkers earlier in the day.

They had, and even had Lashley’s name on a receipt. The transaction was also captured on videotape. The walkers and crutches were resting comfortably in a corner of Hicks’ kitchen by the end of the day.

“I was real pleased with the sheriff’s office,” Hicks said.

She was especially impressed by Holmes.

“That boy, he was right on it,” Hicks said.

She said she was as surprised by what Lashley didn’t take as what he took. She said also in the garage is a heavy metal hitch-packer – an item placed on the back of a car that’s used to haul wheelchairs.

Hicks said if Lashley was looking to sell metal for scrap, he could have gotten far more out of that than he got for the lightweight walkers and crutches. She wondered aloud if he was simply too lazy to pick up the heavy hitch-packer.

“I want the boy to know – you need to get a job and go to work,” Hicks said.

She said for Lashley, the end-result could have been worse.

“If I’d been here by myself and seen him, I’d have probably shot at him,” Hicks said. “I’ve got a .38 and I know how to use it.”

Lashley was charged with misdemeanor larceny and obtaining property by false pretenses. To add insult to injury, he was charged after being stopped by Burlington police after allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run in a parking lot on East Morehead Street. Lashley was charged with driving while license revoked in that incident.

He was placed under a $15,000 bond. A magistrate at the Alamance County Magistrate’s Office said Lashley complained about the bond amount, worrying he’d have to spend a night in jail.

Hicks said she’d give anything for a healthy set of legs like Lashley has.

“It ain’t like I want to be in this chair,” she said. “I want to be on my legs, out doing things with my grandsons.”